Wave / Electronic Music 1984-1988

構成数 : 1枚
合計収録時間 : 00:52:45
Best known as a percussionist for N.Y.C. dance-punk pioneers Liquid Liquid, Dennis Young has maintained an eclectic, highly prolific (yet under the radar) solo career since the group's initial breakup in the early '80s. During the middle of the decade, he started releasing cassettes of his electronic music, credited to Dennis Andrew. With a renewed interest in '80s cassette culture and new age/ambient music occurring during the 2010s, German label Bureau B (which boasts an extensive catalog of Krautrock and Berlin-school reissues, as well as new material from those artists and younger acts inspired by them) released this compilation of Young's obscure electronic work. The songs bear the obvious influence of '70s cosmic hallmarks such as Klaus Schulze and Cluster, but with much more of a homemade quality. With the exception of the ten-minute "Ancient Vision," most of the selections clock in at around five minutes or less, and they're typically bright and melodic, so this doesn't feel like a sprawling collection of never-ending, indulgent space jams. They're relaxed and contemplative, but they're also joyous and spirited, even uplifting and playful. Track titles such as "Arabian Nights" and "Starlight, Starbright" point to a nocturnal theme, but the music seems much warmer and sunnier than that. Nevertheless, it has a dreamy, hypnotic quality, as Young's sequencers play ebullient arpeggios and his sparkling keyboard melodies and Robert Fripp-esque guitars dance over them. The aforementioned "Ancient Vision," an excursion into space music, seems a bit more haunted, however. It floats weightlessly and seems to slowly move up beyond the stratosphere, with Young's wordless vocals indicating that he might be in some sort of possessed state. Tucked away into a small corner of the music world for ages, these recordings sound fresh and inventive several decades after the fact. ~ Paul Simpson